Mall Scavenger Hunt and Other Party Ideas

My daughter is turning 10 soon and so I have some UNIQUE ideas. These are great for ages 10-18.

First is a MALL SCAVENGER HUNT. You give each team a small budget and a list of items to buy or find. The free items can be as simple as a napkin from the food court area. I would place an adult with each team for safety. After they are done gathering their items have a home base that they return to. Reward all players with a party favor to take home.

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Second, this is not for my daughter's age, but sounds fun for the future. You rent a Limo and pick up your best friends either at their house or from school and it takes you to a nice hotel with a great pool area. The parents would book a room so everyone will have a place to change. You can choose to have an over night party there or just an evening party. If you choose an evening party then the parents can choose to return to the hotel and use the room for the night. This would be a win, win for everyone.

I thought this was suppose to be suggestions for Thrifty Fun! Please tell me what is so THRIFTY about renting limos, hotel rooms, etc? I think you found the wrong website for your suggestion. Good idea if you have DEEP POCKETS! Let's stick to something more in tune for those of us who don't have that kind of BLING!

This is suppose to be Thrifty Fun, not Expensive!! How can you justify renting limos, and hotel rooms as Thrifty?? This area is not for deep pockets. Nice thought for those who are into "bling", though.

When I worked at the mall, scavenger hunts were a regular weekend event. Groups of kids flocking into the store to find or purchase one silly item. Tearing the place up which I had to clean. Then after the hunt was over 9 times out of 10 the item was returned since it was usually an odd item. Then the process of paperwork and time generated by returns. A lot of work for a no sale. Since most mall employees make very little pay with a limited time at closing to do clean up and paperwork. What a nightmare!

Suggestion for the mall scavenger hunt... adults should definitely accompany each team for safety, proper supervision & to be sure the kids don't make a mess in the stores or get accused of things they didn't do. If they do make a mess the kids & adult must fix it b/4 moving on. The silly item(s) they are to purchase should be something that would not be returned. A candy bar or some bag candy the team could share or use for their goody bags, a very inexpensive trinket type item or something the parent-host actually needs & uses.

The mall idea is fantastic!! My girls are already planning their 17th birthday and I have a hunt to plan!! THANK YOU!!

As for the hotel idea, if you forget the limo it is still a (higher end) thrifty idea! Renting the YMCA for a pool party or doing a bowling party is really expensive. Having a pool party at a nice hotel with a private room for changing sounds great. Plus the parents getting it for the night combines two in one!

These are good ideas for the rich preppy girls and guys who have a never ending money supply pouring into their pockets. Like most girls my age, we're trying to find something no one ever thinks of that we can do for cheap, cheap so we can actually do something.

For those of you who DO have to money. Everyone does the mall scavenger hunt around where I live.

And the hotel with the pool and the limo. Good luck booking it all on the same day. It's really hard if there's not a ton of good limo places and nice hotels around. But it really is a good idea if you have money.

I am about to plan my daughters 11th b-day party and we are going to do the scavenger hunt thing at the mall. We did a scanvenger hunt with our sunday school class and we didnt buy anything. Each group had a digital camera and they went around and took pictures of the items we listed on there list and then we all met back up at the base and whoever had the most items wins, and you can pick the prize for the group, like pay for their lunch, or something cool like that.